Chapter 14

Mitch led Abby back to the main floor library then through a sheet-curtained door that led into a large room built on to the side of the house. If Abby had closed her eyes, she would have thought she walked into the center of a pine grove. The large room was entirely pine paneled except for one wall that had a very large velvet curtain. Three rows of large cushion armchairs filled the room. The trim across the top, bottom, and sides of the wood panels was embedded with the details of routed design work, and seated within the center of the wall panels were custom sound cushions.

“This theater has been my pet project,” said Mitch.

“It’s amazing,” said Abby. “How much of it did you do?”

“Practically all of it, except of course the curtains, chairs and movie equipment.”

“Did you design this?”

“Not exactly,” said Mitch, “ I kinda played it by ear – like jazz, ya know?”

“Whadda ya mean jazz?”

“You know,” said Mitch, “ I had to build this theater so I picked a place outside the library in the fall when I could still get a good foundation down. Once I had the foundation I had the bass line.” He slowly drew a horizontal line through the air to illustrate his point. “I already knew the melody in as much as a theme. I mean the room was to be a theater. The movie equipment had a set of requirements. The rest I just made up as I went a long – like making up notes.” Mitch made a rapid conducting motion, “Like jazz, I filled the in spaces in between the bars.”

“Heavy,” said Abby.

Mitch took Abby’s hand, eased her down into a cushion chair next to him, and in his Bogart voice said, “The stuff dreams are made of.”